Should Your Studio Run Ads Yet? The Cost of Waiting and the 5 Green Lights

You've told yourself you'll grow organically first. Referrals, word of mouth, posting the right way. Ads are for later, when you're bigger. That sounds responsible, and it is costing you money every single month.

In this episode, Jackie Murphy breaks down the invisible invoice your yoga or Pilates studio pays while it stays invisible: the luck ceiling of referral-only growth, the empty spots in your classes that add up to five figures in missed lifetime value, the attention shift that moved your future members onto their phones, and the unpredictability tax that makes every month feel like a gamble.

Then she does the thing most people selling ads skip. She walks you through the five green lights that say your studio is ready for paid advertising, plus the one red light that means wait. By the end, you'll know exactly where you stand.

TIMESTAMPED OUTLINE

•  [01:39] What's coming in this four-part August ads series
•  [04:22] The invisible invoice: four costs of staying invisible
•  [05:07] Line one: the luck ceiling of referral-only growth
•  [06:30] Line two: missed member math and empty class spots
•  [08:30] Line three: where new students are looking now
•  [10:15] Line four: the unpredictability tax on your nervous system
•  [11:46] What the data says about Meta and Google returns
•  [13:36] Real math on a $280 monthly ad budget
•  [15:12] Why organic content and paid ads multiply each other
•  [16:21] Green lights one and two: a converting offer and knowing your numbers
•  [18:20] Green lights three, four, and five: follow-up, capacity, budget
•  [23:39] Inside the Studio CEO Ads Agency and what's next

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Referrals are a bonus, not a marketing plan. Growth by referral is growth at the speed of luck.
• Ten empty spots at a $1,200 lifetime value each is $14,000 of revenue not walking in.
• 83% of people on Instagram discover new businesses in the app. Paid ads are how you show up there.
• An ad's job is to bring a stranger to your front step. Your offer's job is to open the door.
• People who see your organic content and your ads are 61% more likely to convert.
• You don't need all five green lights today. You need an offer you know converts.

PULL QUOTES

"Being invisible is expensive."

"Referrals have to be a bonus, not a marketing plan."

"A business that grows on referrals is growing at the speed of luck, and luck has a ceiling."

"It might be costing you way more to not have ads on in your business."

"Ads are an amplifier. They make more people experience what is already happening in your business."

"Anyone who sells you ads without checking this first does not deserve your trust."

FAQs

1.  Do yoga and Pilates studios really need paid ads?
   Referrals and word of mouth cap out at the size of your members' social circles. Ads are the channel that makes new student flow predictable instead of lucky.
2. How do I know if my studio is ready to run ads?
   Check the five green lights: an intro offer that converts, a lifetime value number, a follow-up process, capacity for new people, and a budget you can commit to without panicking.
3. When should a studio owner wait on ads?
   If you have no proof your intro offer converts, wait. Ads amplify what already works, so test the offer organically first.
4. What kind of return do ads get for studios?
   Across small businesses, Meta returns about $4.20 for every dollar spent, and yoga and Pilates is one of the strongest categories on the platform.
5. How much should a studio spend on ads?
   Clients in our agency spend anywhere from $5 a day to several hundred. Pick a number you can commit to for a few months without stress.

Work with Jackie Murphy

• Say Hi on Instagram @studioceoofficial
• The Studio CEO Ads Agency: https://www.jackiegmurphy.com/agency
• Join The Studio CEO Program: https://www.jackiegmurphy.com/studioceo

Transcript

Why Waiting Is Not Free

SPEAKER_00 0:00

You've probably told yourself this before. I'm not ready for ads yet. I'm going to grow organically first with referrals, word of mouth, or just posting the right way. Ads are for later when I'm bigger. And you know what? I understand that thinking. It sounds really responsible and it sounds patient, but I have to tell you the truth today because I care about you too much. The waiting, it's not free. There is a bill that your studio pays every single month that you stay invisible. Nobody ever sends it to you. You're never going to see the number. But today I'm going to break it down for you. And then because I would never sell you on running ads without checking whether your studio is actually ready to use them. I'm going to walk you through the five green lights that tell you it is time to have ads running for your business and the one red light that tells you it's actually time to wait. By the end of this episode, you're going to know exactly where you stand in regards to paid ads. So let's get into it.

Meet Jackie And The Series Plan

SPEAKER_00 1:38

I'm your host, Jackie Murphy, an award-winning certified business coach with over 12 years of experience inside the yoga industry. I have seen firsthand what it takes to build a profitable and scalable business. Join me as we dive into strategies, insights, and real-world advice that will help you grow your revenue, build a thriving team, and create a business that serves you as much as you serve your students. It's time to embrace your inner CEO and make more money without working more. This is just the beginning. Four episodes built for the owner who has never run a real ad or for the owner who wants to scale their ads. And today we're talking about whether it's time for you to have paid advertising in your business and potentially what weighting on paid advertising could be costing you. Next week, we're going to talk about exactly where do you start, Meta or Google, or which first ad to run. And then we're going to talk about what ads really cost and why a lot of owners quit too soon before they end up working. We'll close out the month with the honest conversation about doing this yourself versus handing it to a team. Let me give you a heads up right at the top because I want to be fully transparent with you all month. I run an ads agency for yoga and Pilates businesses. This is what my team specializes and does every single day. And this month we are opening five client spots, just five, because we want to spend time onboarding you properly. And I would rather serve five businesses really well than 20 halfway. The application is going to be in the show notes of every single episode this month. And when you apply, we will let you know if we genuinely think you're ready to have ads running in your studio and if we are the right fit for you. But more on the ads agency to come. Let's dive into the podcast today.

The Myth That Ads Are Optional

SPEAKER_00 4:22

Here is the belief, and I hear it constantly from business owners who come to work with me. It sounds like ads are optional. If my classes are good and people love me, I'm gonna get referrals. There'll be word of mouth. I might do some posting. And ads are what you need if your referrals, if your word of mouth isn't working. And listen, I love that you believe in your classes, and I love that you are getting referrals. But I want to walk you through what this belief might be costing you because there are four lines on this quote unquote invisible invoice, and I really want you to see each

The Invisible Invoice Of Staying Small

SPEAKER_00 5:07

one. Line number one is the luck ceiling. Let me ask you a question. How many referrals are you going to get in August? You don't know. I don't know. Nobody knows. And right there is the whole problem. Referrals are wonderful. And I want you to get referrals in your business. But referrals have to be a bonus, not a marketing plan. You cannot decide to have more referrals one month because we can't predict or forecast them. We can't scale them in the same way that you can scale ads. And you can't bet that you're gonna make enough money off of referrals because, again, simply you just don't know. A business that grows on referrals is growing at the speed of luck, essentially. And luck has a ceiling. It's about the size of your current members' social circles. And when those circles are tapped out, your growth can flatline. And I've seen this so many times with businesses that come to me stuck. They've hit kind of a membership plateau. They've hit a wall, a revenue wall where they can't get over. And no one has ever told them, oh, it could be because your marketing channel of referrals has essentially run its course and we need to pivot and add another marketing channel in. Line number two of what this could be costing you if you don't have ads is missed member math or missed client math. A member is worth conservatively, this is different for everyone, obviously, over $1,000 to you across the lifetime of their experience with you in your business. So that may be a member paying $150 a month, they stick around, and you have a lifetime value of that member close to $1,000. For a lot of you, that's gonna be much higher, especially if you have higher ticket items like teacher trainings, retreats, or programs. But let's ground this in current reality. I want you to go look at how many empty spaces you have in your class this week. Let's say that you have space for 40 students and you have 10 people missing, 10 missing members each at a lifetime value of let's say $1,200 each is $14,000 of lifetime revenue that isn't coming into your business and they haven't joined because they either don't know you exist, don't know that membership is the best option for you, and haven't said yes to being a part of your community. So this happens month after month after month, class after class after class. You're looking at missed revenue, or some people like to say like money left on the table, because we don't have this other marketing channel of ads bringing those people in. So sometimes people will tell me, like, running ads feels really expensive. I don't know if I have the budget for that. But I really want you to flip that. It might actually be costing you way more to not have ads on in your business simply from the money that you're leaving on the table or the missed revenue. Then think about the next part. Line number three is the attention shift. Because we can think in this industry specifically, oh, they'll find me when they're ready. And it's just not how the consumer is finding people anymore. 83% of people on Instagram say that they discover new products and businesses right there in Instagram. So when the postpartum mom decides that she wants to feel more relaxed and not dread the nighttime scaries and feel stronger in her body, she might go straight to Instagram and find the solution for her problem there. She is going to go to the place where it's easiest for her to find the right fit for her. And that is no longer like driving around town and seeing what studios are there or calling a friend to see where they go. It is opening her phone, scrolling an app, and finding what works. So you want to be in that feed. And the only way that you can guarantee that you're in that feed is with paid advertising. If you're simply just posting organically, then you are not showing up for so many people who could be potentially looking for you right now. Boutique fitness, this industry is only growing. Demand is going up. And so you want to make sure that when these people are looking for the right teacher, the right studio, the right space, that your ad is showing up for them at the right time. Okay, line number four is the one that no one really ever can like price out or think about the roller coaster. When you don't have a clear paid ad engine, a marketing engine, it is incredibly hard to forecast how many new students you're gonna see next month, how many of those people will convert, how many of those people will become clients or members. And so you'll start to feel like every month in business is more of a gamble than a safe knowing that you have the ability to reach people, talk to them about your offer, and bring new clients in. That unpredictability tax is a tax on your nervous system. 72% of entrepreneurs report moderate to high stress. And in my experience, a big driver for that amount of stress is the instability or not knowing or not feeling safe in what is going to happen this month, next month, next month, and next month. So I really want you to think about what it could be costing you to not have ads going. You're capping your growth. You could be missing or leaving money on the table. You might be missing potential students at the exact moment when they are looking for a solution, and it just causes more stress on you. Not having paid ads is not free. It's not even cheap to not be running paid ads. There is this whole side, this cost of waiting and not doing this in your business.

Are Ads A Gamble Or A Machine

SPEAKER_00 11:46

So let's look at the other side of this because maybe you're like Jackie, I get it. There's a cost to not having this marketing channel set up for my business. But there's still a voice in my head saying that ads are a gamble. So let's look at data and then we're gonna go deeper on this all of August, and you can decide is this right for me right now? But here's what research shows across small businesses, meta ads that's showing up on Facebook and Instagram is the most reliable paid ads channel that there is right now. On average, it returns about $4.20 for every dollar that you put in. That's the average. That includes people who aren't getting that and people who are getting better than that. But our industry, yoga, Pilates, strength training, fitness, these wellness modalities is one of the best categories on the entire platform. We actually can get a really, really high conversion rate and a low cost per lead so that you're making the most of your money on Meta. On Google, it's about $63. And those people convert really, really high at nearly 70% because they have high intent when they're searching in Google. So these numbers can be kind of boring. Maybe I just lost you. What I'm trying to tell you is this is a machine that so many small businesses are using that we have used for over a decade for ourselves and for our clients now, that it doesn't seem like a gamble when you actually look at the math, when you look at the data of what people are getting from their ads.

Simple Math For Ad Profit

SPEAKER_00 13:36

Let me give you real math on this so you can kind of see what I'm talking about. Let's say that you decide to spend $280 one month on meta ads, and that buys you 10 leads, 10 new students, you spend $28 on each of those leads, which would honestly be quite high, but let's do the math with a high cost per lead. That's 10 real new students who've raised their hands and said yes to your intro offer. Now, your your intro offer, the solid conversion rate that you want to have is between 25 to 45% of the people who say yes to the intro offer convert to membership. So let's be super conservative and just say that your conversion rate is not there and only one of those new students becomes a member, just one. That one member is worth, like we said earlier, let's say $1,200 or more for your business over the lifetime of being a member with you. So you just traded $280 for $1,200. That is way better than the four to one ratio that Meta says happens in their ads. And that's not the end of it because she also might bring in a referral and bring in her friend and talk about you on Instagram. And so it all starts to work together really beautifully to have so that you can have a marketing machine in your business with all of these different channels bringing you new students and new client.

Organic Content Plus Ads Multiplier

SPEAKER_00 15:13

Now, one more, because I know we talk about showing up on organic social media. I am so big on reels. It's a part of the studio CEO program, and there's more on that to come shortly. But people who see your organic content and your paid ads, so they're seeing your reels you're posting on social media and they see an ad, they are 61% more likely to convert than people who only see ads. So I'm not saying that we should stop doing organic, that you should stop posting. I'm saying do that, but multiply your work so that you get more from it. The ad may find her, she goes to your feed, she watches a few videos, she feels connected to your community, and then she opts into your intro offer. That is how this ecosystem really starts to give you a super high conversion rate. And all of a sudden, your organic social media posting starts to work way more than it was before. So I know the question wasn't ever, do ads work? Ads work. I love ads. I am so gung-ho for you running ads in your business.

Five Green Lights For Readiness

SPEAKER_00 16:21

The real question is, are you ready to run ads? Like, is your business ready to run ads? And this is something that we can kind of go through and check the five green lights. So, what I think is required is number one, you have an offer that converts. The ad will bring people to your offer. So think of it like this: an ad's job is to bring a stranger to your front step. Your offer's job is to get that stranger to walk through the door. If the offer doesn't work, the best ad in the world will just cost you money. It'll deliver strangers to a door that doesn't even open. So you really want to know do I have a clear intro offer or freebie that gives an obvious, easy first step and I know converts people into the next right step, whether that be membership or a retreat or teacher training. If you have that right now, where you have an intro offer or freebie that you know once people say yes to that, their two weeks unlimited or their month for half off, whatever you're running, and they choose to stick around, then that is a really good sign that you are ready to start running paid ads. All right. Green light number two, really knowing your numbers. And specifically the number that we've already talked about in this episode, you want to know what a member is worth to your business or a client is worth to your business over their lifetime. So typically in this industry, we say that people like to stick around in a membership for six months. What's your membership price? Can you start to calculate the average lifetime value of a person who's in your business? Now, this number will change drastically because you might have other offers. They might opt into a day retreat, a workshop, a teacher training, another program. And so this is something that you do want to be calculating your business and have a pulse on so that you can make decisions about how much you want to spend on advertising based on what you know or what you can assume will come in from that person once they say yes and walk into your business. We want ads to never feel like a mystery. What should I be spending? When should I turn this ad off? When should I turn this ad on? Like we use the math to make sure that we're making all those decisions from data. We're never ever just guessing or making decisions based on how they how you feel. Green light number three is that you have follow-up. All right. A lead from an ad is going to be colder, meaning they don't know you. They're not quite as warmed up to you yet. They may not trust you, know you, like have that relationship with you yet. And so the cold lead coming in does require a bit more follow-up and relationship building. And so you want to make sure that your system of welcoming someone in, getting them set up the right way in your business, talking to them, them getting to know you is really, really solid. Doesn't have to be perfect, but you do have a way to build that relationship and build that trust with the new person that's finding your business or seeing you. Now, I don't, in this case, like recommend you needing an entire sales team to like call the person immediately and get them scheduled. And that's just not how I like to run a business. It's not wrong. It does work. It just is more bro vibes than what I like to do. So I like to make sure that your follow-up is set up in a way that you feel confident it's gonna work. We're gonna talk to these people, but I'm not hustling or I'm not on edge, or I don't have to hire a whole sales team in order to make ads work. Okay, green light number four. This is kind of a funny one, but you gotta make sure that you have room for more people to come into your business. It is so common that people tell me, I want to grow and I want to have this massive growth and I want to um, you know, 10x my revenue. And I'm like, okay, do you have systems? Do you have space? Are you ready for that number of new people coming in? Because we want to make sure that your business is set up well. Green light number five is just a budget that you can commit to without panicking. I have clients in our ads agency who spend $5, $10 a day, all the way up to clients who are spending multiple hundreds a day on different ads and really, really pushing their ads budget. So there's not one or right wrong, there's not one right or wrong number of what you have to feel good about spending, but you do want to say, okay, I feel good about committing to spending this, giving it some time because ads do require you giving them some time to really work well without you panicking about that money. So if you can have that, if it is just $5 a day, $10 a day, if it's more, and you would feel confident saying, yes, I'm ready to commit to this and trust this spend over a certain number of months, then that can be a sign that you're really ready for ads.

The One Red Light To Wait

SPEAKER_00 21:43

Now the one red light, because I promised you the truth if you don't know that you can get your intro offer in someone in front of someone and have them convert, it would Not be time for ads. Ads are an amplifier. They make people experience what is already happening in your business. So if we have a leak, if we don't have a strong conversion, if we don't know that this is already working organically, I would say, let's do that first. Let's test that first and then amplify from there. And honestly, anyone who sells you ads without checking this first does not deserve your trust. You should not be working with them. There is a little bit of a gray area here because there are some intro offers that I've seen over the 15, 16 years I've been in this industry that I'm like, yeah, I know that'll work. So if you're opening a brand new studio in a brand new market and you haven't sold a single single intro offer or membership, but you can tell me about it and I know it's a proven offer, then I will tell you that as well. Because you don't have to be open and running and ready to be selling these intro offers and membership. All right, that was a lot, my friend. I want you to zoom back out with me because you do not have to have all five of those green lights ready to go today. Like you don't need to be able to have a funnel and a converting intro offer and a way to follow up with people and making sure your operations are clean. Not at all. Like for you to start running ads, you just need a solid intro offer that we know converts and an understanding that it's probably costing you more in your business to not have ads running than it would actually cost you to run an ad at $10 a day in a way that is proven to work for this industry.

Agency Fit And How To Apply

SPEAKER_00 23:39

And that is what is unique and specific about our ads agency. Most ads agencies that you'll go to to work with, I would say they start at a pretty high monthly retainer cost. We're thinking $5,000 and up to run your ads. Now I understand the yoga and Pilates business, and I understand that you probably don't have that budget in your business right now. And so our ads agency is designed to fit in to your monthly payroll without costing you this exorbitant amount. And we only run ads for yoga and Pilates businesses because that is my expertise. That is what I've done for so many years. And so while another agency may be great at selling um book bads for kids going back to school, or they may be great at getting plumbers business that they need. We are really, really good at getting you new students in your business to become new members because it's all we focus on. So again, if you are like, I want to run ads, I don't want to spend time figuring this out alone. I also don't want to break my bank hiring an agency, then that is what the Studio CEO ads agency is for. We're going to link more information down below in the show notes. And that link has the application on it. When you fill out your application, it takes less than two minutes. We will review it. We will let you know, okay, yes, I think you're ready, or no, I don't think you're ready. If you are ready, we will book a call with you to talk through everything, to talk through those five green lights and make sure this really is the right fit. And we will always tell you, I tell people all the time, if I don't think they're ready or we're not the right fit right now, because it has to be a win-win for everybody. And so if you want to join the studio CEO ads, agency, we are enrolling new clients right now for August. We would love to have you. You can click the link below in the show notes. And in next week, we're gonna talk about where would you start with ads? Would you start with Meta or would you start with Google? And we're gonna talk about the multiplier hiding in the content that you've already been posting. So here's a summary in just one line: being invisible is expensive. Not running ads is more expensive than you running ads well in this industry. And ads are what make your growth predictable, and it's so much easier to scale your business. Readiness, those five green lights, decides whether or not it's time for you. Will they work for you? I will talk to you in the next episode.